Regular readers and people who know me... who am I kidding if you're reading this you know me... can probably guess that All Quiet on the Western Front isn't really one of those movies that I was tripping over myself to see. War movies really aren't my thing. Sure I've seen and enjoyed plenty and now Western Front is amongst their ranks, but war movies inevitably fall into one of two camps. Either they are anti-war and thus are all about the horrible things men are forced to do at the service of those who have all of the power but face none of the consequences, or they are propaganda pieces intended to glorify war by making it at worst look cool or at best as necessary evil. Neither of these thematic cores appeal to me. I'm already so much of a pacifist that anti-war films don't tell me anything I don't already think or feel about war, and really just succeed in making me a bit depressed. And of course the propaganda pieces are (for much of the same reasons) abhorrent to me. I'm tempted to digress here into a long anti-war opinion piece but this post is not about war, but rather All Quiet on the Western Front which, of course falls in the anti-war camp of war movies.
Along with being the first academy award winner I've watched during this on going scratch off poster project All Quiet on the Western Front is also the first sound film. It's worth noting then how much the inclusion of sound adds to a film. Western Front wouldn't have been even HALF as effective if it weren't for the masterful use of the sounds of war during its multiple extended war scenes. It feels like approximately 1/3rd of the movie is spent with no music, and no dialogue; letting the audience soak in the horrific soundscape of WWI. These large swaths of the movie are a powerful experience where the images and sound overwhelm all the senses that sound film can. This is an effect I truly believe to be unachievable with accompanying score. Music can elicit an emotional response, but sound effects create the illusion of lived experience far better. During my viewing of this film I found myself not noticing the usual cinematic tricks my studies of film have taught me to notice and recognize and the world around me drained away as I became subsumed by the horrific and jarring sights and sounds the movie was presenting me. It was a genuinely immersive and effective experience. I even became entirely unaware of the technical limitations the production must have been under given the time at which it was produced. The soft sound, lack of color, and film grain became entirely unnoticeable.
Given that All Quiet on the Western Front is an anti-war movie, which I have mentioned, typically just depress me; it isn't shocking that that was the primary feeling coming away from the film. However I was surprised to find a significant amount darkly ironic humor woven throughout the film. There is a tone Western Front manages to strike that really makes it rise above it's peers. Much like The Circus interwove its comedy and tragedy Western Front harshly juxtaposes violence and comedy that attempts to recreate the mindset of treating violence casually that war inevitably forces upon those who fight it. That statement does require some further clarification. War forces those who fight it to put on a facade of casual treatment of violence to quell the cognitive dissonance of being told and wanting to believe that war and violence are just, but not seeing any justice as their friends and enemies, with no stake in the causes of the war, die around them. This is the core theme of Western Front: War creates a cognitive dissonance that forces individuals to build a facade of casual treatment of violence. Everyone throughout the movies tell each other lies, downplaying the negative effects of war and violence, telling each other fatal wounds are recoverable, that their leg wasn't actually amputated, and many others. These lies are even repeated in the few scenes that take place away from the front lines as a soldier tells his mother that he'll be able to get a position in the kitchens away from the fighting.
So those are my thoughts on All Quiet on the Western Front. Next week: Another 30's classic and another horror film.
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